Friday, 28 February 2014

Wow this one was really hard! If I was stranded and had only one mix-tape what would it be?

Like everyone my tastes change weekly so I had to narrow it down and be stranded on a tropical island. I think a frozen tundra deserves its own album with its own moods. I would love to fill this one up with a bunch of Disclosure and Kanye or French house records but those tracks would take up too much room. This ones filled to the brim with essential tracks so I won't talk about all of them, but I will talk about the important ones.

Lets start it with the greatest opener of all time, Politik by Coldplay. A Rush of Blood to the Head is still one of my favorite albums of all time. It was Parachutes but with teeth and nothing showed that more than this opening track. It was hard to choose just one Coldplay song when most of their discography is rock solid along with all the B-Sides like I Ran Away and Crests of Waves.

Next we have Parisian Goldfish by Flying Lotus. On a deserted island I will be thirsty for three things; water, beer, and Flying Lotus. Parisian Goldfish has that great tropical beat, and killer synth that I will never ever get sick of.

I have a soft spot in my heart for post-2000 New York Punk so the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be claiming a coveted spot on this list. Their first album Forever to Tell was absolute perfection and the track Date With the Night has has a 2:30 minute run-time.

We all know I stay noided so a Death Grips track is a must. A deserted island is probably the only place I can bump Death Grips without someone complaining about it so I intend to take full advantage of that. The opening track "You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It's Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" Yes that name is just as bad as anything Sufjan Stevens did in Illinoise but man this track bangs so hard.

Crystalized by The XX. Yes, I know Islands should be the obvious choice but no crystalized is the best XX track hands down.

I'm not sure what happened to Imogen Heap. She had such a promising start and I feel like she threw it all away, but Loose Ends from the album Speak for Yourself is a surprisingly dense pop album that's short and direct. Im going for all my guilty pleasures for this mix since I have no one to answer to.

Brooklyn Zoo from Ol' Dirty Bastard is just a fun track that I don't want to answer for along with Joey Bada$$. I know the pro era crew hasn't put out anything solid. Some people prefer west coast or dirty south styles but those people would be wrong and that's ok.

The Dj Rashad track to represent Chicago and honestly his debut album was like nothing I've heard before. I get the same feelings hearing Double Cup as I did when I first hear Flying Lotus's Los Angeles. It's the thesis for an entire genre of music.

Now that I've defended my choices feel free to criticize. Yes I checked this mix clocks in at exactly 70 minutes so it's burnable to a standard CD-R

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Had an interesting idea the other day based off some uni work, (and the BBC Desert Island Discs show, any resemblance is coincidence, honest!) if you had to take one CD worth of tunes with you should you be stranded for an indefinite amount of time, what would be on it? It's real hard to condense nearly 12 years of music collecting into 70 minutes, but I gave it a go. Tracks and more words below.

Here I tried to cover pretty much my favourite and most listened to tracks from every genre I could fit in there, and then tried to make it flow well, cue the trademark ambient dip in the middle. A lot of these tunes are ones I can never seem to tire of, Here's a little bit about each pick of mine.

Daft Punk - WDPK 83.7
I'll be honest, WDPK is there cos I had a few extra seconds to work with, but it serves as a nice intro too so it fits in there nicely.

Modeselektor - Blue Clouds
Blue Clouds might be a recent favourite but it's earned it's place there, that intro is solid every time, and the building intensity over six minutes is flawlessly done.

Vitalic - You Are My Sun
Many a time I've written of my love for vocoded goodness, Vitalic has it in a ton of his tunes but none stand out as much as this one to me, it's a pretty good bit of electro too.

Squarepusher - Plug Me In
More Vocoders, this time from Squarepusher. A far cry from his older 'Drill 'n Bass' work, Shobaleader One got a mixed reception but I loved it. This intro track is pretty much perfect and sets up the spacey future vibe brilliantly, as I best heard it said "R&B from 2050".

Broadcast - America's Boy
The track that started my love affair with Trish Keenan's voice and scratched an indie electronic itch I didn't know I had. Broadcast are criminally underrated and are one of my all time favourite bands.

The Knife - Silent Shout
Silent Shout came to me at a difficult time in my life some winters ago and gave me an experience like no other. It's downright haunting in parts, no doubt helped by the twisted vocals. I Hadn't connected with an album on that level for a long time, IMO one of the finest produced electronic albums of all time.

Autechre - Kalpol Introl
Got massive love for early 90's Warp's bleepy brand of techno. Autechre may not like this album much these days, but I think it's a stunning debut, and one of the best examples of Warp's "electronic listening music" concept of the time.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Betrayed In The Octagon
Another album I came into a few winters back. I remember scoffing at the reviews comparing it to Boards Of Canada. "This new guy's got nothing on them" I thought, then I listened to this and was stunned. Fast forward a few years and now OPN's gotten pretty popular. This one's a great demo of his older sound: beautiful ambient littered with analogue arpeggios.

Boards Of Canada - Dawn Chorus
Honestly not my favourite example of boards, but I've beaten my two favourite minute long ambient bits (Olson and Over The Horizon Radar) to death so I figured I owed 'em one. One of the less menacing tracks on Geogaddi, this one's just a treat to listen to.

Röyksopp - Poor Leno
Röyksopp have been a mainstay long before I went took the dive into the electronic world. First heard this one on Las Vegas' Freemont Street circa 2001, immediately bought the album when I got back to England and never looked back.

Aphex Twin - IZ-US
Unusually tame piece from AFX. Long time favourite of mine from the Come To Daddy EP that has some bonus memories tied to it. Still have a card from an old friend with the opening sample written in it.

Daft Punk - Short Circuit
Originally Voyager, but I changed it to this last minute. That complete 180 in sound around the halfway mark and it's slow descent into distortion get me every single time.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock
The YYYs dive into more electronic stuff. Sure it's a little predictable and as much as I love their other albums I felt this one belonged more. This tune doesn't get as much love as others I think, it's like a slightly less bittersweet Maps and I love it.

HEALTH - Pills
Just a shy over 1 minute long this one, but I can never skip it. HEALTH can be hit-and-miss with me a lot, while this tune is a little simple, it stikes a nice balance with their usual noisy sound.

Bibio - Light Seep
Song of my summer 2009. Seems weird to be nostalgic over something not that long ago, but damn if this doesn't bring back the warm fuzzies. Good times and a good tune, Bibio's lo-fi really shines here.

Martina Topley-Bird - Sandpaper Kisses
I'd heard of Martina thanks to Gorillaz & Tricky but had no idea she was working on solo stuff until I did a little research. Another entry on this list containing one of my favourite voices, Sandpaper Kisses is a lovely hazy tune from her debut that is timeless for me.

Nightmares On Wax - Pipes Honour
One of the first entries on this list. Lot of good memories tied to this one too, the whole Smoker's Delight album is one of my few 10/10s. As soon as that first drum hits I'm gone, that 9 minutes just passes in no time.

Massive Attack - Three
Originally going to be Protection but I had no room left. Settled for Three from the same album, not a perfect example of trip hop sure, but a unique vibe that highlights the guest vocals from Nicolette Suwoton and has some pretty deep basslines throughout.

That's me covered, stay tuned though because coming soon are Adam and Earl's selections for their own 70 minute selections! For now I'll leave you with that and some honourable mentions below that were cut for time or because they couldn't fit, enjoy!

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Hey guys, Nite here with a quick post this time. I didn't really have anything planned for this post thanks to college and mid-terms, so here's some interesting tunes I've found during the past couple of weeks.

First up, we have a previously unreleased track from Madeon named Cut the Kid. Short, but sweet, it carries some powerful beats that you just can't help but dig. This will definitely be on your replay list for sure.

Next up is a Chemical Brothers track I discovered on a Sasha and John Digweed Mix CD. The track, named Enjoyed, is 8 minutes of Sitar-based Electronic music. It's absolutely lovely and perhaps one of my all time favorite Chemical Bros. tracks to date. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy (heh) this gem!

Third up on the list is this wonderful remix of Maya Jane Coles Something in the Air by Bonobo. Unfortunately, it's not out as an mp3 yet, but you can still listen to this wonderful tune on Soundcloud. It's Chill as fuck.

Lastly, in regards to Sasha, here's one of my all time favorite tracks from him. No words to describe how amazing this tune is.
Sasha - Xpander (Original 12" Version) [click to download] |HTML5|
Be seeing you all soon with some more tunes! Till then, have a wonderful music filled afternoon!

Friday, 21 February 2014

Got back in from having the third years grill me about my work and where I'm going to take it this year. It was actually pretty good and I got some good contacts from them and I feel a lot better about my plans now I had 'em give me the OK. Back to the chilled selections it is then, tunes after the art!

Edward Hopper - Chop Suey

FlyLo's ideas series has taken hold of me again, especially the more unconventional ones in there. There's a bunch of tunes like this one with beautiful sample work and gorgeous basslines. Only complaint here is that it seems to be mastered quite loud (if at all) which gives me a bit of a jump when it comes up in my headphones.

Jumping back into Unkle's debut here, the instrumental version of this tune Unreal was a favourite of mine, and I got a lovely surprise when I got this bonus one featuring Ian Brown of The Stone Roses fame lending his distinct northern-ness to the track. He compliments the vibe set up by Shadow and Lavelle brilliantly.

I've avoided putting up anything from the Sneaker Pimps for a while, 'cos I assumed like Portishead and co. they'd probably been blogged to death already. Turns out the few that had posted them are dead, which is a shame, they bring some real neat sounds to the field of trip-hop, I recommend you check 'em out.

A bit of everything, no context needed, the weekend is starting, life is good, have some music.

Usually, Claude posts about The Knife, but somehow I don't remember this being posted here, Planingtorock reworked Let's Talk About Gender Baby, Let's Talk About You And Me and released it on her album All Love's Legal (a must have!)

This Solomun Vox remix reminded me of old Metronomy, from the Nights Out era. Something about these vocals... love it.

And finally, I discovered this songs a few weeks ago during a Club Cheval mix on a french radio, and it sincerely blew my mind, there is nothing more to say, it made me go through the discography of both men involved, geniuses.

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Finaly got around to sorting through the lit of promos sent to me thanks to our new 'n streamlined Toneden partnership. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the stuff we're getting is pretty varied in styles which is always good to see. I forwarded a few on to the other writers but here's a couple that caught me, after the art of course.

Dan Baldwin - Dark Forces

After covering 20 years of Warp Records it should be no surprise I like a little experimental stuff n the side, so immediately this one caught my eye. Before I even got to the track I was diggin' the visual accompaniment with me being all arty and whatnot, and the tracks fit them to a T. Take this one for example, right from the intro it was giving me Apparat-esque vibes, and I'm absolutely in love with the lush synths that get dropped in towards the mid point.

And finally something a little unexpected, reading promos can be a real drag sometimes but when they come out with saying they've already been featured on BBC Introducing you gotta give them a closer look. Reminds me of the kinda tunes I'd hear watching MTV at like 1 A.M years ago, liking it a lot.

But that's not what they got in touch with us about, no they wanted us to have a look at their follow up single! It shines a bit more on the production side than Cold and it seems like they're really finding their sound. It does get a little mainstream dance-y in parts which I'm not a massive fan of, but they're doing well for themselves and those breakdowns are still lovely. Interested to see where they take it in future.

Monday, 17 February 2014

Long before he was working with Daft Punk, Giorgio Moroder had already made his home in my music library as I loved his soundtrack work for Scarface and Midnight Express. Good news is that in recent times he's fully adopted soundcloud and given us a peek into his works. Alongside the usual b-sides, outtakes and whatnot are unreleased slices from the Scarface soundtrack, and I'm in love all over again. Moroder's production is second to none when it comes to nailing that 80s disco-y vibe. Check 'em out yourself!

Sunday, 16 February 2014

I was lead on a real musical journey today, it's been a while since I've had this kinda seven degrees of separation thing come up when I'm looking at tunes so it was a nice return, tunes after the mandatory pic, this time some more lovely typography and design from The Designer's Republic

It all starts when I see an update from Stenchman on my FB newsfeed,saying that he'll be releasing one of his Philestine tunes later that day. I love his stuff under this alias so much, there's not a lot of it out there that isn't on his soundcloud though. Anyway, enjoy this fleshed out version of Genius In A Bottle, much better than that short soundcloud clip I posted a while back!

He also put up a drum & bass tune, which set me off trying to find a drum & bass track I dug but never got the name of. I found it after a little bit of digital digging and vague googling, imagine my surprise when it's a remix of an Everything But The Girl tune, and it's every bit as good as I remember. Tracey Thorn sounds a lot different to how I'm used to hearing her on Massive Attack's Protection, doubly so with those new found breakbeats.

Then the infrequent sax and Thorn's contributions in that track got me back into the jazz 'n bass vibes of the E-Z Roller's Weekend World. Problem is I pretty much covered the entire LP over a few posts but there were still a couple concrete examples of that vibe on there: the bass, sax, flute and the vocals of Kelly Richards coming together to make that distinct sound that I love.

Saturday, 15 February 2014

My most anticipated album of the year is finally available, Mondkopf released Hadès, his 4th album.

Hadès is a 40 minutes long organic yet electronic experiment that will make you understand why his former album was called Rising Doom, the whole piece feels like the end of the world. Everything, from the cover to the very last second of this album feels like the OST of the most violent and dark disaster movie. Mondkopf stepped out of his usual style in the way that some of the songs are more of a series of sounds than following a pattern, while it might seem a bit messy and unfinished at first, it's the complete opposit, everhting has been thought a lot, and the fact that it sounds raw is exactly what makes the album brilliant.

Here are a few tracks that sum up the album, but doesn't make it justice because it has to be listened to from start to finish.

But let's not forget that yesterday was Valentine's Day, for the occasion Sam Tiba and Canblaster made us a mixtape!

- Tracklist in comments -

Little bonus, an old remix by Canblaster that I rediscovered a few weeks ago and noticed that it was never posted on here so if you enjoy futuristic western music and horsestep, you're in for a treat.

Thursday, 13 February 2014

After working a frantic 14 hour day yesterday, I got everything done and handed over. Good news is I have today off to just be really lazy so I thought I'd write up another post. Here's a semi-random selection of what I've got on currently.

Indie184 - Chill Out

Starting with early highlight and surprisingly heavy track from Portishead's still sublime debut. This a pretty solid example of their sound circa then, the way those beats meld with Beth Gibbons' moody vocals is pretty special, especially when it all comes surging together at 1:15.

Another bit from Plone's unreleased second album. If it had been released, I can guarantee this tune would have been licensed for all sorts of advertisements and whatnot like their track from the We Are Reasonable People compilation, Plaything has. Not that that's a negative, it has the same playful vibe as the rest of their output and is a joy to listen to.

The Flashbulb now, with a bit of a change up from his usual sound. Sure it starts off with an ambient edge like so many other experimental electronic folks have, but then that bassline hits and the song keeps on building and building until you hit that post-rock esque climax around 2:40 that is almost perfection. Then Benn is kind enough to give you a couple minutes of comedown time too, it's a real experience this one.

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Not a lot of words this time because I'm mon-u-mentally pissed off. Have a bunch of tracks that are rotating atm as I frantically try and get thngs in some sort of order, and a quick reminder that even when you're all adults, group projects are still absolutely shite and don't do one unless you're being paid.

Hey guy's, it's Nite again, here with another post for you guys! Today I'm going to take you on a little trip, and introduce you to one of my favorite new(ish) artists to hit the electronic scene: Soular Order.

Soular Order, aka Jon Maynard, is a Bass Music Producer/Musician from Manchester, UK. Ranging from Future Garage to ethereal ambiance, Maynard uses a combination of Burial-esque Vocal sounds and Bass-saturated beats to create a track that is chill, yet invigorating at the same time. Whether it's something chill you're looking for, or you need something to dance to, Soular Order's got it for you.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Work's slightly more on track but we're not out of the woods yet, been going out of my way to get some downtime in before I get back at it, here's the transition back to more downbeat stuff I employed this weekend.

Michael Alan - Strange And Productive

More old school jungle to start, with a remix of the seemingly timeless Renegade Snares from Omni Trio. The original is more in line with the stuff Omni would go onto make, but this remix kicks it up like Thru The Vibe from the last post.

Moving more into the chill but keeping that hard edge with a bit from a bootleg mashup EP I found a while back. I'm usually skeptical about mash ups, but I gave it a chance seeing as I'm a fan of both Aes and Portishead and I was pleasantly surprised. Its well produced throughout and definitely worth your time.

Sliding on home with the finale from 2009's Two, an instrumental downtempo rearranging of the second track. It's really interesting how just slowing it down a little and stripping some elements away can completely change the vibe of the tune from a dancy electroclash love letter to an introspective post dancefloor lullaby.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

I have an interest in Australian history, particularly pre-federation. I was just going through things, when inspiration struck for my next themed post. It came when I was researching the exploration of the coastline, and when I saw this.

So now we get to the good bits, tunes with lovingly crafted bass. If you don't already have them on, now would be a good time to get some good headphones on.

I generally use this as a test track whenever I have access to a sub woofer, just to see what it picks up. The sway between too much synth and too much orchestra really gets me uneasy, but I'm willing to concede all my nit picking just to hear that bass line on a good theater system.Daft Punk - Solar Sailer [click to download] |HTML5| I'm quite certain I've posted this before, but for those who missed it, you have another chance to hear how bass lines should be done. One of my favourite bass lines, and it's such a well produced track too, with clarity in every frequency.Pretty Lights - Yellow Bird [click to download] |HTML5| The reason I started listening to electronic music; Crystal Castles. I'm not sure if the bass in this is classified as a kick or not, but it's a good test for any speakers.Crystal Castles - Violent Dreams [click to download] |HTML5|

I'm sure many people will listen to this and remember why they don't like rap. If you're one of those people, just block out the lyrics and enjoy those delicious clammy waves.A$AP Rocky - Wassup [click to download] |HTML5| Can't really talk about great bass without mentioning Gorillaz. Clear predecessor to their hit Dare, and apparently they liked the bass line so much they used it twice.Gorillaz - People [click to download] |HTML5|

Remember my penchant for chiller stuff the past few weeks? s'gone now, got a exhibition to sort with a group by Monday and it's getting tough to say the least. So here's some more less chill stuff for you to get your mitts on.

Francis Bacon - Seated Figure (1961)

Starting with a tune from Omni Trio I've been hanging onto for a while, the sample in it at 1:15 pretty much sums up the theme of this post. It hails from the older era of drum and bass where it was just finding it's way out of the realms of hardcore. Definitely reflected in this track, got a completely different feel than his later piano & breaks combos.

Teenage Bad Girl always had that Oizo-esque roughness to their output and the opener for their second album Backwash is no different, it starts strong and does not let up until the very end. I'd completely forgotten about the 40 odd second wind up to the second half of the track in there, which was for sure a nice surprise after a couple long days.

A late addition to this post and a tune I'd long forgotten about, Erol Alkan's reworking of Daft Punk is different to say the least, but when the pressure was on it fit like a glove. In Erol's own words: "It doesn’t want to be liked, it doesn’t want you to dance to it. It’s called The Brainwasher, and it doesn’t give a shit.”

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Just some tunes, a bit of text, and this picture.
Apparently this post needed a title, so I gave it one.

My personal favourite from Cyanide Sisters.

Com Truise - Space Dust [click to download] |HTML5|Kid Koala, Dynomite D and two former members of Wolfmother got together and created The Slew. The Slew created an album called 100%. The whole album sounds like a bad-ass walking around the wild west dishing out justice on a grand scale.The Slew - Problem Child [click to download] |HTML5|

Easily in my top five electronic albums. edIT also celebrated a birthday recently, so happy birthday edIT!edIT - Laundry [click to download] |HTML5|

I'm not a big fan of Justice, but if I had to pick one song it'd be this one. I personally prefer the live versions over the studio versions of every Justice work. This and Final are the only two Justice songs I've found and not instantly wanted to escape from.Justice - Stress [click to download] |HTML5|
-Sulphites

Sunday, 2 February 2014

Back to work tomorrow after a three day weekend, early start plus a lecture. Been taking it easy like with my past few posts and today was pretty special, had two instances of shuffle just nailing it in terms of selection, here's a section from the first!

Jeremy Mann - The Last Light of San Francisco

FlyLo's free idea box he dropped on twitter has been a welcome addition to my collection, hidden amongst the usual array of FlyLo we're used to are some lovely instrumentals. Much cleaner than the noise laden Brainfeeder that introduced Los Angeles and later gave it's name to his label, this one is fast becoming a favourite.

Back with another track I picked up on my brief stint into the world of vapourwave. A catchy little loop that stuck with me for a while from Midnight Television's self-titled, the influence from Oneohtrix Point Never's Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 is pretty clear on this one.

On that note little something from semi-obscure Oneohtrix Point Never side project Dania Shapes. Here OPN really lets loose with is unique bran of melodic noise, with little glitches peeking through the lush synths every so often. I know I've said before I don't much care for noise/glitch most of the time, but this one here really does it for me, maybe 'cos I am an art person.